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Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejects Bush troop “surge”
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday received a stinging rebuke of his Iraq policy, as a Senate panel condemned his plan to pour more US troops into the war-ravaged country. By a 12 to nine vote, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution slamming Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, just one day after he asked respectfully pleaded with Americans to give his plan a chance to work.

But US Vice President Dick Cheney bluntly dismissed the no-confidence measure, telling CNN television: “It won’t stop us.”

The bipartisan resolution written by the panel’s chairman, Joseph Biden, fellow Democrat Carl Levin, and Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel, criticized an escalation of US forces in Iraq as “not in the national interest.”

“My intention was to send the first of many messages — direct and unequivocal — to the president: Stop what you are doing,” Biden said during the hearing. The Democratic chairman added that he was likely to submit even tougher, binding Iraq legislation if Bush fails to heed the message of the proposed symbolic measure.
Do it now. Get it on the record. I want to see how many of you -- especially Republicans -- vote for a binding resolution, so I know exactly where not to send my 2008 contributions.
The committee hearing was held after Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address Tuesday, in which he made his case for additional US troops in Iraq. Unswayed, however, opposition Democrats after the speech accused the president of “recklessly” leading America into war, and they continued to heap disdain on the president’s Iraq strategy during Wednesday’s hearing.

The draft bill is only one of several proposals slamming Bush’s surge plan, including some that would cap the number of troops, cut off funding for the deployment of additional troops or gradually pull US forces from Iraq altogether. One bill deemed most acceptable to many Republicans — proposed by Republican Senator John Warner, former head of the Senate Armed Services Committee — opposes an escalation in troops and urges the president to reconsider his options.

Biden said at the hearing he would be willing to work with Warner to craft acceptable language for a revised measure before it goes to the full Senate for approval.

Republicans on the Senate panel also expressed dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Iraq, but said the resolution would make matters even worse. “This vote will force nothing on the president, but it will confirm to our friends and allies that we are divided and in disarray,” said Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the committee’s former chairman and a highly respected voice on foreign policy matters.
It's okay to be frustrated about Iraq -- we're frustrated here at the Burg, and the President expressed his frustration in the SotU address. That doesn't mean you cut and run.
Several Democrats have proposed to cut and run stiff amendments to the bill, including bills capping US forces at the existing level or even cutting war funds altogether. Legislation has been proposed, among others, by senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Chris Dodd — all considering vying for the White House in 2008.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-01-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=178666